[mistrauen des überbewusstseins (mistrust of the extrasensory) ]

The crossover of the term “über” from German to English goes back to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, who coined the term “Übermensch” to describe a higher state of human consciousness. A loose translation of “mistrauen des überbewusstseins” is “mistrust of the extrasensory”—a nod to Joseph Beuys and his statements concerning mistrust of our intuition and the notion artist as shaman. Many esoteric practices involve the process of reconciling conceptual opposites or opposing heavenly and earthly forces or actions. Garten, using his figure as a reference, has materialized a life-sized crystallized man. In esoteric practice heavenly forces located in the crown are balanced by the earthly forces in the soles of the feet. The crystal’s upward, heavenly ascension is an earthly, geological process. mÜber stands on his head, in both serious and ironic commentary on our attempts to redirect our energies to a "spiritual" plane. Both the physical and energetic bodies are in a state of simultaneous ascension and descent or decay.